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As I looked this AM at today's menu of news and online forum delights before continuing my intrepid journey remastering my two-channel music collection, something struck me:
"Why do I derive such pleasure fixing these recordings over the available news-of-the-day and online dialogue with others having shared interests in music reproduction?"
As I first think on the news agencies and specialist news bloggers, it isn't difficult to immediately think on changes in overall world gestalt. That picture--the way that the world looks at itself--isn't really inviting or encouraging.
The various audio forums--including this one--really don't make it much of a habit to address a music lover's needs to better enjoy his recorded music over his sound reproduction system. Instead, forums mostly present a close but indirect subject: talking about hardware and individual problems using it in their collections of hardware--"which DAC did you buy today? Oh, that's got worse reviews than the brand that I own...", etc.
As I look elsewhere perhaps to critics' articles on music, I don't see that which motivates me to read on. Why this is so is a subject related to my remastering knowledge. It's difficult to keep reading on now that the "cat's out of the bag", so to speak. Besides, music reviews are apparently more rarely read by most "audiophiles" that I know personally, than they might care to admit.
The subject of real interest this morning is one of the most famous of W.A. Mozart's piano concertos (...you know...the 3-movement piano pieces with orchestra...). Piano concerto #20, in D minor (K. 466) is said to have been the favorite composition of Joseph Stalin (a dubious distinction at best) and certainly a composition that has drawn in many future music lovers in the past to the other compositions of this--perhaps the most famous music prodigy and composer. Why?
I suppose the answer lies in its astonishing beauty and musical invention, its overall and lasting effects on the listener's emotions and subconscious state. But the real reason is that it shows me how great the accomplishments of human effort were 230 years ago. It puts into perspective that the problems we have today are nothing: how insignificant the petty present arguments and "axes to grind" are compared to the real issues of the day back then and in the years following up to the end of world wars, great famine, genocide, pandemics, poverty and malnutrition, and ignorance of effective governance systems and individual freedoms.
In this spirit, I decided to stop and share a moment of what I consider to be real inspiration: hearing my recording of this Mozart piano composition essentially for the first time - without it sounding like a "table radio".
The spectrum of the third movement before remastering:
And the "after" spectrum:
The picture of the EQ correction curve for the entire concerto:
The recording comes from Decca's Mozart Piano Concertos, Alfred Brendel and the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields, Sir Neville Marriner (Decca 478 2695, disc #9). The XML file for Audacity to correct this recording (all three movements) is enclosed below.
I now look at the world with a refreshed set of eyes and ears with anticipation for better things ahead.
Try it yourself, for the music that inspires you.
Chris
Mozart Piano Concerto K466 - Brendel.XML